Obscure: Hard to Perceive
by violinmana
Summary: Flashback: Why, oh why, did he keep on having these weird dreams? Even though they are kind of helpful. Who else can see the way he did? Rewrite of Just Subliminal's fic of the same name.
1. Flashback 1: Prologue

A/N: This is basically a rewrite of Obscure: Hard to Perceive by Just Subliminal. I have his permission to post and continue this story. However, there will be major changes to the story. There will be a plot. This will be planned out. There will be updates every Monday before noon. And most importantly, I do not own Naruto.

* * *

_"Uzumaki Naruto! For the death of Uchiha Sasuke, we the council sentence you to public execution!"_

Sitting atop the Hokage Monument, these words processed through the blonde's mind slowly, normally expressive eyes becoming dull and unseeing. He thought he'd be hurt, scream in injustice, protest, something...But he couldn't. _'Truthfully,' _he thought, blue eyes running over the horizon, watching the sun set slowly, _'I did kill Sasuke. It's all my fault he died. If I'd just let him beat me that first time, he would've stayed in Konoha, he wouldn't have felt like he needed to get stronger from outside sources... I deserve to be executed. And now, I've only got one more day to live... until I die at age 12.'_

_**Been given 24 hours**_

_**To tie up loose ends**_

_**To make amends**_

_**His eyes said it all**_

_**I started to fall**_

_**And the silence deafened**_

As he stepped into his apartment, he suddenly felt dizzy and needed to stop to regain his equilibrium. _'I should really clean this place up,' _he thought, almost dazedly. Taking a deep breath, he began sweeping everything into a pile, often stopping to stare at small trinkets that he could remember getting over the years. Slowly, he crouched and picked all the important and memorable pieces from the pile, setting them onto his bed before putting all the trash in a bag to be thrown out.

_**Head spinning round**_

_**No time to sit down**_

_**Just wanted to**_

_**Run and run and run**_

_**Be careful they say**_

_**Don't wish life away**_

_**Now I've got one day**_

He'd entertained the thought of running once, when he was stripping everything from his closets and walls to put somewhere else. He even felt himself turning towards the door, ready to put on his shoes and run, but then a voice in his head stopped him:

_"Are you scared, cry baby?"_

It was Sasuke's. He couldn't run now. Just as he was calming, assuring himself that he could do it, something bust down his door and tackled him. He was confused, but then he realized the wailing bundle of heat laying on him was none other than Haruno Sakura, the person he'd promised to bring Sasuke back to. He brought Sasuke back... just not alive.

"Sakura-chan..." He didn't want her to lose _two_ teammates at once...

_**And I can't believe**_

_**How I've been wasting my time**_

She begged him to run, to leave, to hide... and even though he wanted to do all those things himself, he couldn't. But he didn't want to let her know that and upset her more. Oddly calm, he let her cry out all her tears and allowed her to pack all his clothing and essentials into a bag and stuff it into his arms. Even though he knew he wouldn't use it, that he wouldn't even _attempt_ to run, he still put it on his back to humor her.

"Sakura-chan... if I get caught, promise me that you won't be sad. Don't look for revenge. Don't be depressed. If that happens, you'll be the last of Team 7. You have to stay strong or it'll look weak, right?"

She stared at him with widened eyes.

_**In 24 hours they'll be**_

_**Laying flowers**_

_**On my life, it's over tonight**_

_**I'm not messing no I**_

_**Need your blessing**_

_**And your promise to live free**_

_**Please do it for me**_

He stood in the Hokage's office, standing next to Tsunade in front of the windows and watching Konoha prepare for his death. A public beheading.

Slowly, he grasped the necklace he wore and began pulling it over his head, only to be stopped by a pale hand pressing it into his chest. "Don't," Tsunade spoke simply, choking on the tears in her throat. "It's yours. It was never bad luck with you. Maybe, just maybe, everything will change if you wear it..." She grabbed him in a hug and collapsed into a mess of tears. "My little brother..."

He wasn't sure if she was thinking of him or her brother Nawaki as she said this.

_**Is there a heaven a hell**_

_**And will I come back**_

_**Who can tell**_

_**Now I can see**_

_**What matters to me**_

_**It's as clear as crystal**_

He went to see everybody. Neji, Lee, Chouji... and after he was admitted into the hospital, everybody went to see him. Tenten, Shikamaru, Sakura, Hinata, Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku, Shizune, Kakashi, Iruka... There were more people there. More than he could count. He hadn't realized that so many people already recognized him, respected him, loved him. It amazed him that he could be so blind, that he'd still need to reach Hokage when he already had so much acknowledgment. At the same time though, he realized that he was really _never_ going to be Hokage and he wouldn't die an old man like the Sandaime.

_**The places I've been**_

_**The people I've seen**_

_**Plans that I made**_

_**Start to fade**_

_**The sun's setting gold**_

_**Thought I would grow old,**_

_**It wasn't to be**_

Again, he sat atop the Hokage monument. _'I guess I should be sad. Hinata-chan was crying so hard... Everybody was crying... for me?' _He fell onto his back and copied Shikamaru, watching the clouds, only to realize that it was a perfectly blue sky today. _'I'm going to die.' _He'd established that already, hadn't he?

But what did he have left to live for, truly?

No matter how much he boasted his dream to everyone around him, to become Hokage for everyone's acknowledgment, he kept coming to the realization that he had it from everyone that mattered already. All he could really do now was count down.

_**In 18 hours they'll be**_

_**Laying flowers**_

_**On my life, it's over tonight**_

_**I'm not messing no I**_

_**Need your blessing**_

_**And your promise to live free**_

_**Please do it for me**_

He felt like he was being watched, for some reason. But not by anybody he knew. Sitting on the old swing in front of the Academy, letting the breeze push him back and forth, he couldn't think straight, but at the same time he was processing thoughts rapidly. It was an odd feeling. _'Have I come to ends with everything? Do I have no regrets? Shouldn't it matter more to me... is that how I'm going to die?' _

_**In 13 hours they'll be**_

_**Laying flowers**_

_**On my life, it's over tonight**_

_**I'm not messing no I**_

_**Need your blessing**_

_**And your promise to live free**_

_**Please do it for me**_

He was positive there was somebody there now, even though he couldn't seem to find them. There was no scent in the air, no energies jumping around someone's body, no sounds of footsteps; Unless you counted those of the people building up the pyre where he would be burned in front of the town. When he looked around, all he saw was a group of leaves and flower petals dancing with the breeze, looking carefree.

He didn't care that he was going to die. He just wanted to know that nobody would be beyond sad that he died. He didn't want anyone to end up like Sasuke, caught dead by revenge, and he didn't want Neji to worsen, believing again that your fate was preordained.

Then again, his fate was, wasn't it?

_**I'm not alone, I sense it, I sense it**_

_**All that I said, I meant it, I meant it **_

_**And I can't believe**_

_**How much I've wasted my time **_

It wouldn't be long now.

He'd been picked up by a pair of ANBU at the order of the council, led back to the Hokage's office. At the moment, he was dressing in his special robes, just formal white hakama with a short yukata over it. As soon as he stepped out, face eerily calm, Tsunade was before him. She was kneeling so they were eye level, her hands on either one of his cheeks, gently stroking his birthmarks, the whiskers nobody else had.

"Naruto, you don't need to do this. They're doing this because of the Kyuubi, you know you don't deserve death! You had no choice but to kill him if you wanted to keep him from Orochimaru!" She exclaimed, blinking back tears yet again. "Please just run... I don't care if I get in trouble, it's better for you to be out of Konoha than dead!"

She embraced him tightly and he returned the hug, focusing his eyes on the desk in the room, keeping them there for a few minutes before he gently pulled himself from her. "Tsunade. It's fine. Just promise me you'll still do the best you can for Konoha and everyone, alright? You can't be sad about me or get revenge... not like Sasuke did. Promise me?"

She stared at him. "... I promise," she choked out before hugging him even tighter, knowing she wouldn't be able to do it again.

_**In just 8 hours they'll be**_

_**Laying flowers**_

_**On my life, it's over tonight**_

_**I'm not messing no I**_

_**Need your blessing**_

_**And your promise to live free**_

_**Please do it for me**_

It was weird for him. Before, he couldn't find it in himself to care that he was going to die, but it seemed as if reality had finally hit him. _He was going to die in a few hours. _Somehow, now that it had penetrated his mind, he was nervous. "I said it was alright... but do I really want to die?"

"Do you really want to die?" A voice came from behind him.

He spun around, but nobody was there.

_**In just 1 hour they'll be**_

_**Laying flowers**_

_**On my life, it's over tonight**_

_**I'm not messing no I**_

_**Need your blessing**_

_**And your promise to live free**_

_**Please do it for me**_

So here he was, being led by an ANBU guard up to the stage, townspeople all around him. He could see ninja, but for some reason, he just couldn't see anybody he knew. _'They don't want to see me die...?' _He really wanted to see his precious people one last time.

It was only as he knelt with his head bowed and back straight, looking straight at the feet of the executioner that he realized that he _was _as scared as he should be.

"Do you really want to die?" The same voice from before.

Clenching his eyes shut, not even bothering to look, he answered in desperation: "No! I don't want to die!"

"Good."

And then he was gone.


	2. Flashback 2: Different

A/N: Thank you for the review you left, X DarthMonkey X, I really appreciate it. The rest of you, shame on you. Well, this chapter is the actual first chapter of the Flashback Arc. The Naruto you see before you is obviously a AU Naruto, as he doesn't share many of the same quirks and personality traits of canon Naruto. Read, Enjoy and Review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, even though I wish I did.

* * *

_"Do you really want to die?"_

_"No! I don't want to die!"_

_"Good."_

Azure eyes snapping open wide, Naruto shot up in his bed. For a few seconds, his breath caught in his throat and suffocated him even as he clutched at his throat in confusion and the memory of pain. After a few seconds of useless choking, the blonde finally calmed and relaxed, slumping back to lay on his sweat-soaked bed. Slowly, he removed his hands from his hair, a few yellow strands too weak to survive the tugging coming out with his fingers. A few seconds passed before the early morning sun flitting onto his face brought the boy from his daze.

_'Another night of those dreams. Why? Why am I having them?' _He thought as he painstakingly pulled back damp covers, sitting up and allowing his feet to hang over the edge of the bed. _'It seemed so real...' _Subconsciously, lightly tanned hands curled into light blue pajamas, knuckles becoming white. _'What I wouldn't give for just one night of good rest...' _

Six years. That was how long Naruto had been having his _nightmares_, dealing with the lack of rest as best he could. He wasn't sure how it started, or even why, but since the age of four, he'd been having dreams. They always seemed to go in order, like memories from some other life. It had started with a carbon copy of him as an infant, having the Kyuubi sealed into him-- That piece he knew to be true, seeing as he'd been dealing with the fox since before he knew what a dream was. The rest of it made no sense to him, however. It showed some type of clone of him being laughing, playing, fighting, hurting, screaming, crying...In his dreams, he lived the life of another. It always felt like he was awake, yet whenever something big happened, he awoke in his bed, screaming or choking.

He'd learned how to deal with it years ago, but that didn't mean it wasn't taking his toll on him. The Naruto in his nightmares frightened him; How could he stay so happy? How could he bounce back up so quickly? How could he even _talk_ about others' feelings when his best friend tried to kill him? _When he'd killed his best friend_? It was unfathomable.

It was even more unfathomable because Uchiha Sasuke had to be the biggest jerk on the face of the earth. Naruto didn't know why his dream self even _tried_ to get that close to the boy. Both in his dreams and in reality, Uchiha Sasuke was angry, distant, and all too obsessed on revenge. He could understand liking Haruno Sakura; She had beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, and she was smarter than he ever would be. Then again, the Sakura that participated in his nightmares was whiny, scary, and seemed to have an eternal grudge against his dream self...But they were completely different.

Not trying to get too lost in his thoughts, Naruto slid off his bed with a sigh and walked across the cold wood to his bathroom. It couldn't have been anywhere after six a.m., but he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, not when he knew what awaited him. Wondering if Ichiraku's was open so early, the blonde showered as quickly as possible before getting dressed.

_'And why would I wear an orange jumpsuit? That's just stupid...' _He thought as he pulled on his shirt and pants. _'Obviously, blue is a way better color!' _He was wearing blue sweatpants, a white shirt with a swirl on it, and a blue jacket that was exactly same as the one in his dreams, except it was short-sleeved.

Before he left his apartment, Naruto glanced at his calendar only to wince. It was October 10th, the day of the Kyuubi festival, and as much as he wanted to go out and eat ramen, he was paranoid. In his nightmares, October 10th had been always day when he was scorned and ignored more than usual, and on the tenth birthday in his nightly phantasms, it was the day that he got beaten to a bloody pulp in the morning by a group of organized, angry villagers. Seeing as it was his tenth birthday today, he decided not to risk it, even though it was silly of him to do so.

With a forlorn sigh at his own idiocy, he gave in to paranoia and re-entered his home. Slipping off his shoes, he began shuffling around his kitchen, preparing to eat bowl after bowl of Lucky Charms until he got exhausted or full enough to go back to sleep again.

One hour later, a group of angry villagers dispersed from outside of his building, not willing to enter the structure just for the sake of beating the boy.

* * *

"As you all know, chakra is the core piece for jutsu and some forms of taijutsu. You chakra circulatory systems are..."

Naruto forced himself to continued copying notes as his sensei, Umino Iruka, taught them about chakra for what seemed to be the millionth time. Every few minutes, he entertained the thought of following after Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru, only to suddenly be hit by the memories of his dreams, where he'd done that constantly and ended up the dead last, the lowest grade in the class, the worst student --on _Sasuke's_ team--. He didn't want that to happen, even if it was just a dream.

He watched as a girl subtly slipped a note with crudely drawn hearts all over it to Sasuke while Iruka drew a diagram on the board.

He winced as Sasuke opened it fully and ripped it into fourths with smooth motions.

No, Naruto _really_ didn't want to be on a time with Sasuke.

"Uzumaki!" Iruka called from the front of the class.

Naruto turned his face back to the front just in time to be hit on the forehead with a piece of chalk, watching blankly as it bounced onto his desk and rolled to the floor. Three...Two...One...Hissing, he slapped a hand to his forehead, hoping to quell the suddenly noticeable sting. Ignoring the laughter from the rest of the class, he looked up at Iruka with a slight pout on his face. "Gomen nasai, Iruka-sensei. I'll pay closer attention," he mumbled.

"You'd better," the teacher spoke in an angry voice before continuing with the lesson.

The whiskered boy sighed for the _nth_ time that day. One more difference to add to the huge list between his current self and his dream self. In his dreams, Iruka was a nice person, kind and quiet unless provoked, who bought Naruto ramen and chided him gently. In reality, Iruka always seemed to be angry at him, and he could guess why. Subconciously, he reached a hand up to pat his stomach and trace the seal before another depressed breath went past his lips. _'Maybe, I'll get lucky, and Mizuki-sensei will trade classes with Iruka-sensei next year...I mean, he wouldn't really make me do something like stealing the forbidden scroll, right...?' _

By lunchtime, he'd been hit in the head with the chalk four times more. Twice for drifting off in his thoughts and forgetting to keep moving his pencil, once for accidentally hitting the girl in front of him with paper when he played football with himself, and one for a reason he hadn't yet determined.

"Oi, Naruto, come over here!" Kiba hollered from where he sat with the rest of the boys in the class, eating their lunches.

Nodding some, Naruto stood and picked up his lunchbox from the ground beside him, lightly jogging over before plopping down next to Shikamaru in the grass. "Hey. Did Iruka-sensei catch you guys today?" He asked, referring to their escape from the chakra manipulation lessons.

"Yeah," Chouji spoke before stuffing a few chips into his mouth. "We had to stand in the hallway and do the chakra exercise...You know, the one where you keep a leaf on your forehead using chakra? It started off for fifteen minutes, but everytime one of us dropped the leaf, all of us had to start over from the beginning," he said between bites.

"Mendokuse," Shikamaru muttered, lying back in the grass and crossing his legs, one hand supporting his head while the other held a sandwich to his mouth for him to nibble on. "Kiba kept dropping the stupid leaf."

Said boy growled, his dog Akamaru sitting on his head joining in as both seemed to glare at Shikamaru. When all they got in response was a lazy look, Akamaru barked in anger while the brown-haired boy muttered something under his breath before turning to face Naruto. "Hey, what'cha got for lunch? My ma's trying to make me eat apples or whatever...Said I couldn't always eat beef jerky."

"Just a sandwich and a bottle of water," Naruto replied quietly. "It's a chicken sandwich though. I don't really want it, something about mayonnaise and chicken together just seems nasty. Do you want it?"

"Yahoo!" Kiba yelled, snatching the bag. Naruto barely had time to catch the water bottle thrown at his head before Kiba was digging into the sandwich, sharing a fourth of it with Akamaru. The apple he didn't catch and it bounced off his head before landing on Shikamaru's stomach, eliciting a small oomph from him.

As Chouji tried to steal a piece and Shikamaru stopped him with a foot, Naruto let out a secret smile. He had his friends, that was a definite plus side to his reality. He didn't have much to say most of the time since he wasn't the most social person, but he always had a place sitting near them...Unless they were in detention, that is.

After school, the blonde could be found in the park, sitting in a tree and absently watching smaller children run around with their parents. Normally, he'd be running around the village with his friends, playing pranks or even just chasing each other for the hell of it. Unfortunately, Nara Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother, was already reluctant to let the boy play with her and had picked him up personally after school along with Chouji, since they lived close together. Kiba had been picked up by his older sister Hana, and he'd even invited Naruto to come play at his house.

If Naruto didn't think that being around more than one huge, drooling mass of fur was frightening, he would've accepted. He had nothing wrong with dogs, but he could _swear_ they wanted to eat him. Sometimes, he mused that they could smell the fox on him.

Lost in his thoughts, he screamed when a ball flew up into the tree, causing him to fall out. Curling up, he prepared for a very sore landing, only to blink when he found himself being caught. Peeking a single blue eye open, he screamed again, scrambling out of the male's arms. It was Hyuuga Hiashi, father of the ever-timid Hyuuga Hinata, master of all glares. "G-gomen na-nasai!" He squeaked as he jumped into a standing position, shaking as he bowed repeatedly.

Hiashi looked at him coolly. "Uzumaki," he interrupted, stopping Naruto from apologizing.

"H-hai, Hyuuga-sa...ma?" He didn't know if he should address the man by _-san _or _-sama_, but decided to go with the latter. He'd seen Hinata use her Byakugan before, both in his dreams and in real life, and no matter how many times he glimpsed it, the thing was creepy. He could only hope to never have it turned on him.

"Pay more attention to your surroundings," he said simply before picking up a bright green rubber ball and proceeding to the place where Hinata and her younger sister sat in the park, awaiting his return with the ball.

Naruto was left shivering. _'He's so creepy...' _Turning, he intended to scurry back to his important, only to bump heads with Haruno Sakura. _'What is with me today!?' _He thought, rubbing his head. "Gomen nasai, Sakura-chan, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"What have I told you about calling me Sakura­_-chan_? Only my parents and Sasuke-kun can call me that!" The rosette exclaimed, glaring at him with mint green eyes. "It's Sakura_-san_ to you, Naruto!" She put her hands on her hips to emphasize her point.

"Hai, gomen nasai, Sakura-san," he mumbled, grimacing as she ran off to play with Yamanaka Ino, who was waving at her from across the park. So, maybe he'd been exaggerating about how greatly different the two Sakura he 'knew' were. Both of them were temperamental to the extreme, and they were both obsessed over Sasuke, the world's most extreme brooder. Still, he had the yet-to-fade hope that she'd someday notice him. Maybe he'd even get brave and ask her on a date?

_-...-_

_Hell_ no. He wasn't that suicidal yet, if his Sakura and the dream Sakura were anything alike.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Naruto started to canter towards Ichiraku's. Maybe he'd go and see the Sandaime later...


	3. Flashback 3: Obscure

A/N: Come on. Where are the reviews? Sorry for releasing so late, I was in Las Vegas for the weekend, and just got back an hour ago.

I do not own Naruto. If I did, it would be cooler. Way cooler.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage watched with a slight sigh as Naruto ate at Ichiraku's, seemingly oblivious to the looks he got. As far as Sarutobi was concerned, demon vessel or not, the child was _extremely_ lucky. He watched the boy all the time, and he'd seen planned attempts to attack the child, sometimes with shinobi involved. Each and every time they were planned, however, it seemed as if he avoided it almost... magically. After the boy had turned seven and successfully missed 8 assassination attempts, Sarutobi had decided he'd simply watch and intervene when necessary.

It was puzzling, though. He knew Naruto's every word and action, and he knew that the boy never received information from outside sources, because a bunch of pre-genin students wouldn't know anything about it. Many times he'd contemplated that the Kyuubi inside the boy kept him from danger, but he remembered asking Naruto what he knew about the fox many times and always receiving the answer, "The Yondaime defeated it!"

True, 'defeat' could come in many forms. And, technically, the fox _had_ been defeated in the fact that it didn't destroy Konoha, nor did it kill the Yondaime; Namikaze Minato had died of blatant self-sacrifice. Still, he wasn't inclined to believe it the few times when he thought that Naruto might see it exactly the way that he did. These thoughts were constantly shot to hell when he saw the boy grin at him after a dinner or rant aimlessly about something as insubstantial as ramen or schoolwork.

"Hokage-ji-san!" Naruto exclaimed as he stepped into the office, a slight grin on his face.

Sarutobi smiled, having watched the boy hop the stairs of the Hokage Tower two at a time before he reached the office. "Hello, Naruto-kun. How are you doing today?" He asked, setting aside a paper as the blonde climbed into the chair across from his desk to sit.

"I'm fine, ji-san. I couldn't hang out with Shikamaru or Chouji 'cuz Nara-san came to pick them up, but Kiba wanted me to come over..." Naruto leaned in close, a hand cupped beside his mouth as if he were about to share a big secret. "I think Kuromaru's gonna eat me though!" He said in a rather loud stage whisper.

Sarutobi gave a hearty chuckle at the thought. "I'm sure Tsume-san's partner wouldn't want to eat you, Naruto-kun. Akamaru doesn't want to eat you, correct? They're very well trained, so they wouldn't do that."

"Are you sure? 'Cuz sometimes, I _really_ think they're looking at me like I'm a hot meal."

"Yes, yes, Naruto-kun. I'm positive." A boy with the luck of every god seemingly on his side, and he's worrying about a dog? Sarutobi found it laughable.

* * *

_"You have two choices. Come with myself and Kisame...Or watch as we destroy Konoha and you along with it. What will it be, __**Naruto-kun**__?"_

_Two red eyes, holding three tomoe, stared down at him hard. He couldn't move; For a single second, he watched as those tomoe began to spin deadly fast, and suddenly, he was standing in a world of red and black. He couldn't move, he couldn't breath, he couldn't even dredge up the will to __**think**__ at all. The only thing he was capable of was watching as Uchiha Itachi advanced towards him, slow but fast at the same time, brandishing a singular kunai..._

Naruto shot up in his bed with wide eyes, clutching at his throat before the contrasting colors of his room registered to him, and he realized that it was himself that was impeding sweet oxygen from being drawn into his lungs. Slowly, he calmed and sat hunched over, hands clutching the sheets in his lap. Blonde hair was damp, more so than usual, and blue eyes were dull and unfocused as they looked at each stitching in his blanket with the nightvision of a feline and more.

_'The dream...' _He thought as he slowly began fading back into the real world. Lately, Naruto's dreams had become more obscure than ever, breaking into pieces and often putting Naruto through shocks and waking him up at odd times, sometimes leaving him unable to go back to sleep again. After his dream self's botched execution some number of months ago, nothing had made the slightest bit of sense to him anymore. He'd seen people; Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame, Sasuke _-alive! Well! Breathing!...Taunting. Hurting. Sneering.-_, Orochimaru, Jiraiya...And there were so many others, too many faces for him to put names to, too many things happening for him to correctly order.

It was beginning to eat him from the insides out, the dreams, the contemplation on them afterward. It was getting harder and harder for him to remain apathetic to them, something that he'd never been good at in the first place. His paranoia was growing; He couldn't even sit in the same row as Sasuke in class without feeling like he needed to get away before he was killed. Slowly but surely, he was beginning to become mechanic in all his actions, whether it was lack of sleep or an overdosage stress, he didn't know.

Just yesterday, he'd copied Iruka's entire lecture on the basic jutsu theory, _word for word_, so that when Iruka came to berate him for staring dazedly at the wall, the man was shocked because of how accurate it was. Naruto didn't even remember picking up his pencil. At lunch, he'd finished his entire sandwhich, chicken with mayonnaise, and he didn't even realize until Kiba began whining at him out of hunger. His visits with the Sandaime were becoming scarce, and thinking back, he could tell that the elderly man was getting worried about him.

And it was _hurting_. Naruto wanted desperately to tell the man about his dreams, about his feelings, about the darker turns his thoughts were beginning to take...And every time he tried, he could feel himself clam up for no reason, and the words never even made it to his mouth, blocked somewhere between his brain and the tip of his tongue. It was driving him crazy, and he didn't know what to do.

With a heavy sigh, Naruto flopped back in his bed and pulled the covers up to wrap tightly around him, turning onto his side so he could look out the window. He stared at the moon intently for what could've been one minute or one hour, but before he noticed, his eyes were blinking closed. _'Please don't let me dream...' _He thought before drifting off into unconsciousness.

He didn't dream.

Instead, he found himself sitting dazedly in front of the large entity known as the Kyuubi no Yoko, the nine-tailed fox of legends, his unwilling prisoner. Too out of it to care, he didn't so much as blink when a claw made of flaming red chakra reached between the bars at frightening speeds, looking ready to cleave him in half-- They stopped mere centimeters from his face.

_"Foolish brat," _the Kyuubi spoke after appearing to observe him for a few moments. _"You do not fear my power..." _The fox looked closer at the lack of a response, bending low and keeping one enormous, glowing eye at the cage's entrance, focusing completely on the navy-clad shinobi in training. _"You are not stable."_

"Why do I dream?" Naruto found himself asking, looking up at the Kyuubi from under slightly lowered lids, torn between curling up in exhaustion and continuing to question things he couldn't answer. "Why does sleep... hurt?"

_"And what reason do I have to reply to you, child?" _

"It hurts. A lot. More than getting hit by Iruka-sensei's chalk. More than having Akamaru bite me...I keep having these dreams. You're there, why are you there? It doesn't...Make any sense..." Naruto mumbled, slowly reaching up and clutching his head lightly as something he could relate to a pounding headache made itself known. "But..."

_"But? Incompetent fools, the lot of you ningen. Can you not handle a dream? A twisting figment of your imagination, woven together by you humans' repeating lives and the dimensions parallel to this one? Even the lowest of the youkai, lower than summoned animals, are smarter than your kind. If you see... then act," _the fox spoke in a riddle.

In a sudden rush of what he perceived to be air, Naruto sat up in his bed, light filtering through the shades to spray itself on his face. Looking to the clock, the whiskered boy found that it was noon on a Saturday. Had he really slept so long? Odd as it was, Naruto felt unusually rested, despite the unsettled feeling in his stomach, a vestige of last night's phantasms.

Even as he began moving around and preparing to spend what was left of the daylight outside, he couldn't help but ponder over the words the Kyuubi had spoken to him, fresh in his mind. _'Repeating lives...? Parallel dimensions? If you see... then act. What does that mean?' _He wondered as he slumped against his kitchen counter, a bowl of Lucky Charms in his hands as his eyes glazed over. A few seconds of his thoughts running together in a confused shuffle, before...

"Argh!" He hissed at the sudden cold sensation on his legs, looking down with a scowl at the mess his milk and cereal had made when his hands fell lax. "Stupid, stupid me," Naruto muttered, pulling a towel out of his dirty clothing bin and placing it over the mess, deciding to clean it up the right way after changing his clothes.

A few minutes later, wearing a pair of shorts and a white shirt with Konoha's emblem, Naruto found himself flicking soggy cereal off his towel and into the sink one by one, feeling bored for reasons he was unaware of. As the last piece bounced into the sink, he turned in a sharp and abrupt fashion, dumping the towel back in the laundry basket before spinning on his heel and heading out of the door.

Walking slowly through Konoha, remaining ignored by the populace for the most part, Naruto didn't know what he was doing. He briefly considered getting ramen, but then he remembered that he'd used up all his allowance from the Hokage the week before. No other plausible choices in mind, he allowed his feet to lead him to the Hokage monument, and more specifically, his 'not-so-secret' spot.

On top of the Yondaime's head, of course. Yes, the man sealed the Kyuubi in him. Yes, the man was _probably_ the reason that he was having so many messed up dreams. But still...He'd given his life for the village, and even if it had cost Naruto a more normal childhood, he really couldn't find a reason to have anger towards somebody who was already dead. Really, what would he do? Stomp on Konoha's most beloved Hokage's gravestone? Yeah, that would _really_ help his situation.

Sitting on one of the Fourth's spikes, he kicked his legs back and forth absently, watching various birds fly over the village and dangerously close to his head. He didn't have anything else to do...At least, nothing else he wanted to do. He could be washing his dishes. Or his clothes. Or practicing with throwing shuriken. Something...But he wasn't. Maybe he'd been hanging around Shikamaru too much, or maybe he just wanted to take advantage of his momentary 'inner peace', but he valiantly believed that lethargy was the best option right now.

_'If you see, then act...' _The words came back to him again as the sun was blocked out by a few clouds. Now that his mind was clearer, helped by the breeze, maybe, thoughts were coming to him. _'If I dreamed that I was going to be beat up, I usually stayed in the house... and when I didn't, it still happened. So... am I supposed to be some kind of seer? Who sees things only for himself? Stupid fox... now I'm more confused than before. What am I supposed to do?' _And so, his inner peace ruined, Naruto slid off the Yondaime's head and began walking back down the stairs of the Hokage monument to the ground.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru called out, barely raising his voice as he saw the blonde go by.

Naruto blinked and looked up before grinning and trotting across the road to Shikamaru. "Yo, Shikamaru. What's up?"

Shikamaru eyed him. _'Well, he's not sighing and zoning out anymore...' _"Nothing. I was getting ready to meet up with Chouji. We were gonna play tag, and it's better if we have more people. You wanna come?"

He blinked. "Sure, I guess," he said, falling into step with Shikamaru as the boy began walking again. "Hey, Shikamaru?"

"What?"

"Can you teach me how to play...That game? The one you always play when you're at home? Er... Shugi?"

"Shougi?" Naruto wanted to learn how to play shougi?

"Yeah, that!"

"...Troublesome, but sure."

"Arigatou!"

"Naruto," Ino spoke, poking the boy in his shoulder. "Oi, Naruto!"

Looking up with wide eyes, said boy turned to her. "Eh? What? What is it?" He then blinked. "Wait, Ino...-san?" He added, remembering how Sakura reacted whenever he forgot to add the -san to her name or called her 'Sakura-chan'. "What are you doing over here?"

"You're good with the henge, right?" She asked almost impatiently, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder as she tapped her foot. "You are, aren't you?"

"Um...Yes?" He replied, bewildered.

"Good! Can I ask you a favor?"

"Er...Sure?" _'Am I asleep and having a weird dream again?' _

"Can you help me with the henge for Iruka-sensei's exam tomorrow? My mother said that if I get bad scores on this one, I'll have to help her afterschool at the flower shop every day until the next test. I'd ask Sasuke-kun, but stupid forehead girl went and got to him first, though he doesn't look like he's gonna help her anytime soon," Ino snickered out. "Well?"

"Okay," he replied. Suddenly, he found himself being dragged away from the swing in the Academy's playground to the small training field where the pre-genin had their exercise drills in the morning. "Ino-san?"

"We can't do it over there, forehead girl's watching, I wanna beat her," Ino said as she came to a stop in a more secluded corner of the building, older students running laps a few yards away from them. "So..."

"Er...Right," he said awkwardly. "Henge into...Iruka-sensei." As Ino did as told, he vaguely pondered over why she didn't go to Iruka-sensei himself for help, seeing as the chuunin was always telling them to do that. Even then, why him in particular? Sure, he was good with the henge, but there were plenty of other students in the class better than himself, like Hinata, although she was quiet and acted weird.

Hearing a 'poof', he examined her before wincing some. "Iruka-sensei's taller, and you forgot that his holster is on the left side, not the right. And you're standing with your hand on your hip...Iruka-sensei doesn't do that."

Scowling some, Ino tried it again, only to find that she'd made the chuunin's skin too pale, and the next time, the sandals were blue instead of black. "Argh!" She finally exclaimed, popping back into her real form and planting her behind firmly in the grass. "I can't focus on everything at once!"

Sitting himself in the grass in front of her, Naruto shrugged. "Then don't."

She looked at him confused. "What do you mean, 'don't'? Iruka-sensei said that you have to make sure you get _all_ the aspects of the person you're trying to transform into right, so I have to focus on them all at once or I won't henge right!"

He rolled his eyes, putting his hands on his knees and leaning forwards some. "I mean, don't focus on all the little things at once. Like..." Naruto frowned some, thinking of a way to explain it. "When I henge...I don't focus on all the little things. You should try and take a picture of the person with your mind, and then when you're doing the henge, pretend that you're just making a copy of the picture. You have to pretend all the little things and the big things are just one thing, and then try to replicate that," he said, nodding to himself.

"I guess I could try that..." Ino studied him for a few seconds before closing her eyes and putting her hands together into the seal for the henge. With a 'poof', there sat a replica of Naruto, leaning forward on his hands the same as the original. "So? How'd I do?"

He gave a small smile. "That's good. It's easier this way, right? You should practice taking less time to get a picture of a person though, it'll help."

"Okay," Ino said, releasing the transformation. "So how'd you figure that out?"

Naruto wondered if he should tell her he dreamed about it, and wasn't going to, but decided that it _really _couldn't hurt. Right? "I saw it in a dream."

Ino stared at him for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "That was so cliché!"

* * *

_"Naruto! Hey, Naruto!" Ino called, running over to him._

_He stopped, turning and looking at her as she bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to regain her breath. "Eh...Ino? What's up?"_

_"Have you seen forehead girl? I gotta talk to her, it's important!"_

_"Yeah...I'm pretty sure you ran past her a few seconds ago, she's in that dango shop behind me," Naruto said, scratching one of his cheeks in confusion. "Her hair's pretty hard not to notice, Ino."_

_Ino rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Naruto. See ya!" She exclaimed before running into the dango shop._

Naruto sat up slowly, eyes half-lidded, and a yawn escaped his mouth. "That...Was weird. Way too weird," he mumbled to himself. "Nothing really happened there. I didn't even wake up feeling weird...Hold on, that's a good thing!" He exclaimed to himself quietly before tilting over sideways, laying on the bed with both his feet hanging over the side.

"Ino's pretty cool, I guess. She doesn't make fun of me much, and she's never really gotten angry at me when I forgot to add the -san to her name..." He rolled onto his stomach. The last month of his life had flown by almost ridiculously fast. After helping Ino 'study' for Iruka's exam, his non-existent relationship with the girl had moved up to 'friendly acquaintances', which was a plus in his book. They didn't really talk much, just idle chatter when they were in the same vicinity, but he felt it was nice to have another person he could add to his friend's list; That was just a group of people who he could tolerate easily and vice versa.

Arching his back of the bed for a few seconds in a stretch, Naruto contemplated on what he was going to do today. Usually, he would have to go to the Academy, but yesterday was April 1st; He'd played a huge prank on several places in the village which included lots of bright paint, feathers, hair dye, explosive notes, and fake shuriken. To his estimation, school wouldn't be resuming for at least another week, although he was dreading the detention he was sure to receive the first day back.

Suddenly, he heard a small knocking sound. Sitting up, he looked at the door, furrowing his eyebrows. "It's only five a.m...Who would come by at this time?" He mumbled to himself. Warily, he reached under his pillow and pulled out a kunai before going over to the door. Silently, he slid it open, only to blink at the sight.

Hinata was looking at the floor, mumbling to herself. "No, no, I should have never come, this was so stupid, I can't do it," she continued mumbling as she turned on her heel and began walking off.

"Hinata-san?" Naruto asked, wondering if he should put the kunai away or not. _'I don't think she's gonna attack me...But she's pretty weird...' _

Looking up, Hinata squeaked when she saw Naruto standing at his door, bewildered. "I, um, ano, that is, I mean, I, er..." She gave a final squeak before her face went completely red and she began swaying side to side. "Naruto-kun..." She whispered before her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted.

"Ah! Hinata-san! Oi, Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, running over and picking her up. "Hinata, wake up! Hinata! Hinata?" Feeling more than hearing people beginning to awaken at the racket, he lifted Hinata completely off the floor and half-ran into his apartment, closing the door before laying her on his bed, wondering what he was supposed to do.

_'Why did she faint?' _He wondered. _'Why was she at my door in the first place?' _"Hinata, wake up," he said, leaning over her and shaking her shoulders.

Slowly, Hinata came to, and the first thing she thought was, _'Oh, what a pretty sky today...' _And then the sky appeared to move back some, and she shot up immediately as she realized it was actually Naruto's eyes she was staring into. Their heads bumped together, and as she put a hand to her forehead in an attempt to quell the pain, she had an epiphany; _'...I'm on Naruto-kun's bed...' _With a scream, she fainted again.


	4. Flashback 4: Change

A/N: This chapter was a bitch to get out. I hate AT&T. They have shitty internet connection.

I do not own Naruto in any capacity. Well, maybe. Who knows?

* * *

When Hinata awoke the next time, she was, luckily, far from Naruto. To her embarrassed horror, it was nearly nine in the morning; She'd been knocked out for _four hours_, on _Naruto's bed_. As if this wasn't mortifying enough, her sandals had been removed and placed by the door, and she found herself neatly tucked into the bed, the distinct but somewhat comforting scent of forests and miso ramen wrapping around her.

"Hinata-san? Are you awake?" Naruto asked as he walked out of his kitchen warily, stopping a few feet from her. "Ano...You're not going to faint again, right?"

Sitting up, she nodded with a slight blush, looking down at the sheets as she poked her index fingers together shyly. "G-gomen nasai, Naruto-kun...I d-didn't mean to...To faint..." Hinata took a deep breath, composing herself, before continuing. "I'm sorry that I...That I woke you up so early..."

He grinned some, shaking his head. "Nah, I was already awake. Good shinobi rise with the sun, right?" Naruto replied. He received a nod in response, and an awkward silence fell upon them for a few seconds, only to be broken by the grumbling of Hinata's stomach.

"Eep!" She let out softly, turning a bright red and curling into herself some. "I, I, ano, sorry..."

"It's okay, Hinata-san," he said. "I have Lucky Charms, if you want breakfast."

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "I can eat breakfast here?" Hinata asked in surprise.

Naruto eyed her oddly. "Well...Yeah..." _'Why does she sound so surprised? It's just breakfast. Maybe her family makes her train instead of eat?' _When she nearly fell out of the bed trying to bow to him in thanks, he didn't know whether to laugh or feel pity. _'She's so weird...' _

Glee. Open delight or pleasure; Exultant joy.

Hinata felt _glee_, for possibly the first time in her life. Although her day had started off shaky, it was turning out to be the best of her life, one which she would _definitely_ remember. She spent the morning with Naruto, sleeping not a few feet from him, eating breakfast across the table from him, and indulging in idle chatter with him!

_And maybe now, she could stop her stalker-like tendencies towards him in favor of actually trying to hang out with him sometimes!_

It was a large improvement. After her breakfast of Lucky Charms, something her father never permitted her to eat because she was of a 'noble' lineage, she'd actually gotten up the nerve to congratulate Naruto on his prank the day before. This had led to them talking, with Hinata gradually easing out of her awkward stutters and opening more, which led to the revelation that while her blonde idle was considerably more..._ admirable_ than she was, he was still a relatively normal person, and they actually had quite a few things in common.

It was a welcome relief from her usual twenty-four-hour-plan, to say the least.

When she'd awakened at 4:30, two hours earlier than usual, going to watch Naruto as he was asleep was a spur-of-the-moment action. She was unsure on the overall portion as to _why_ exactly she'd thought of knocking on his door to see if he was awake first, but for once, her thoughtless actions had gained something in her favor. Hinata found it unbelievably embarrassing that she'd actually fainted at the thought of talking to Naruto, but waking up with his fragrance wrapped around her was something she felt she could happily do again. And again. And again.

* * *

"Hinata."

The stern voice, belonging to none other than her father, brought her out of her wistful musings. "H-hai, Father?" She whispered, straightening from her low Jyuuken position, having been in the middle of training.

"It has come to my attention that you left the compound earlier than usual this morning. Would you care to enlighten me on this fact?" Hiashi ordered more than questioned, raising a single thin eyebrow. "You missed breakfast as well."

Blushing at the thought of breakfast, Hinata fought a losing battle against smiling. "I couldn't fall back asleep...So I left the compound...And I ended up having breakfast with Uzumaki Naruto-kun..." She glanced at his eyes directly, twitching mentally at the hidden emotions there, before directing her own pupilless orbs to the wall at the side of his head once again. "Gomen nasai, Father..."

"You would do well to leave a note or alert of sorts next time you intend to do so..." He paused then, eying her, noting quietly that his eldest daughter had an odd 'glow' about her today and it was keeping her relaxed. "Hanabi wishes to train with you in the afternoon," he said after a few seconds of silence before disappearing from the dojo.

As her father left, Hinata released a breath she didn't even know she was holding. _'Otou-sama is so creepy...' _Shaking her head as she realized what she'd been thinking, Hinata mentally apologized to her father as she resumed her training. Hyuuga Hiashi was a very imposing figure indeed, but though he could be relatively cold to her and her sister at times, it was nice to know creepiness was just in his nature and he really did worry about them.

But that didn't mean he wasn't scary.

* * *

"Ohayo, Naruto-kun," Hinata whispered out after the boy opened his door.

From his doorway, Naruto blinked. "Uh...Hi, Hinata-san. Ano..."

"Would you...Would you...Would you like to eat breakfast with me?" She squeaked out quietly.

"Er...Sure, I guess," he said, stepping out of the apartment and not bothering to lock the door.

"Arigatou!"

As they walked towards Ichiraku's, Naruto eyed Hinata curiously, wondering what was up with her all of a sudden. After she'd popped up at his door last week, she seemed to be making it a habit to eat breakfast with him. It wasn't that he didn't like it, but...It was weird. What was so good about having ramen with him? Or Lucky Charms?

_'Maybe...Maybe they really do make her train instead of eating?' _He pondered, eyes narrowing some. _'That counts as child abuse...Right? But she always seemed like she had breakfast before...And she always eats good lunches during break...And if she was really hungry, she wouldn't share with Kiba when he was too empty to be filled on my stuff...'_

"Ne, Hinata-san...You do eat breakfast at home sometimes, right?" Naruto asked suddenly, stopping and turning to face her.

She blinked before nodding. "Ano...Hai..." Then her eyes widened. "Am I bothering you, Naruto-kun? Gomen nasai! I didn't mean to bother you. If you want me to, I'll just go home and eat breakfast right now, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to, please don't be angry!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed.

Seeing tears well up in her eyes, Naruto flinched back some, waving his hands in front of him. "No, no, no! It's alright! Really! I like eating breakfast with you! I just wanted to make sure! Please don't cry!" He hated it when girls cried. Actually, he hated it when anyone cried. Crying meant pain, and he was no stranger to pain, so he wouldn't wish it on anybody. Not even Sasuke.

He thought of the way Sasuke had ripped the girl's note up while she was staring at him so hopefully.

Okay, so _maybe_ he'd wish a _tiny_ bit of pain on Sasuke, but really; Making girls who weren't your enemy whose about to kill you cry is wrong! Really wrong!

"Naruto-kun? Ano...We're here..." Hinata said quietly, tugging on his sleeve.

Blinking, Naruto shook the thoughts out of his head, realizing he'd zoned out again as he was prone to do oftentimes. "Gomen, Hinata-san," he said, following her into the stand where Teuchi was already expecting them, the ramen and naruto -the food- already near prepared. "Ohayo, Ojii-san!"

"Ohayo Naruto, Hinata-chan!" Teuchi greeted with a smile as he brought the miso ramen and naruto -again, the food- over to sit in front of the two on the counter. "Today, eat as much ramen as you want, on the house. I figured that since you two have been here so frequently this week, I might save a bit of the money in Naruto's pockets."

Unfortunately, he said this while Hinata had just begun swallowing her noodles. Later, when reflecting on this moment in his life, these thoughts would go through Naruto's head: _'It makes sense. Hinata is a nice, caring, sensitive, somewhat weird, somewhat inattentive person. She didn't realize I was going broke buying our ramen every morning with my money for the month. It makes sense that she almost choked on her noodles at the thought.'_

Of course, when he thinks of the way he'd been repaid for patting her on her back to help her breathe, he will always get _this_ thought: _'Ew. Chewed up ramen on my leg. Hotwetnasty, hotwetnasty, hotwetnasty, ew...'_

* * *

He didn't blame her though.

Kick, spin, kick, punch, kick, block, kick, spin...

Saying the words in his mind over, and over, and over, Naruto went through his training quietly, trying not to think of the reason that he was in the field just before training ground 44 at three in the morning, attempting to tire himself out to the point of becoming a mindless robot that lived without thought. Not that it was working.

To Naruto, training ground 44 was his 'calm' place when he was too turbulent to get next to the Yondaime's carving and too off-time to get to Ichiraku's. Maybe it was an influence of his dreams, although he wasn't quite sure how he could feel calm here when his so-called 'best friend' was given some type of cursed hickey only a few miles from the spot. All he knew was that he enjoyed the stillness it had at all times of the day, seeing as nobody came near it out of fear.

_'Kick, spin, kick, punch, block...' _Naruto faltered and fell to his butt, wincing. _'I was supposed to kick there, wasn't I?' _He thought, closing his eyes and beginning to catch his breath, flopping back into the grass. _'I guess I did it too much,' _he thought, more to keep his mind on something than to comment on the obvious. Opening cerulean orbs again, he let his head loll to the side, staring at grass that was illuminated by moonlight.

_'The grass looks really cool right now. It's like it's glowing, with the dew starting up, and...' _Naruto groaned, rolling over onto his stomach and burying his face in his arms. _'Who am I kidding?!' _"This is so... sucky..." He murmured into his arms. "I didn't think it would be like this if I didn't dream at all..."

The reason Uzumaki Naruto was laying in the cold, moonlit grass at three thirty in the morning, muttering incoherently to himself... was because he didn't have a dream. He'd gone to sleep a few hours ago, a cup of water at his bedside, wrapped neatly in his covers, expecting to have some weird dream and wake up at an insane hour in the morning. He'd gone to sleep, thinking that he should maybe try and tell the Sandaime about his phantasms again.

He'd gone to sleep and woke up five hours later without a thing happening, mentally or otherwise. And as much as Naruto had wished for it, prayed for it, _begged_ for it... when he finally _got_ it, the feeling was frightening, and he found he didn't know what to do. He didn't even know what to think. Naruto was used to waking up well before the sun after any type of dream, sitting up staying trapped in the memories of it for a few moments, and then either starting his day or laying back down to ponder over it until he faded off in his thoughts again.

He was _not_ used to waking up in a still-lying-down position. He wasn't used to waking up without any sweat around his neck or back. The concept of waking up and realizing he was in his own room, not trapped in some illusion or talking to somebody, and doing so almost instantly...Was frightening. With one little event, out of the control of anyone, Naruto felt like his entire inner workings had been turned upside down and shaken up into confusion.

Naruto had contemplated several times on going back to sleep, but he had the innate belief that it wasn't going to work. It wasn't that he was so well-rested that he had too much energy, no; It was more that he was afraid to go back to sleep. Without the dreams he felt... naked. He had nothing to ponder about, nothing to dwell on, nothing to start of his daily train of _slightly_ twisted thoughts. He felt so...

Uncoordinated.

"I'm supposed to be happy and asleep or smiling and cheerful without them... not restless and frustrated and _awake_ and... and... out of whack!" Naruto exclaimed into the air as he rolled over onto his back yet again to stare at the sky.

A cough behind him, seeming distinctly annoyed, brought him onto his feet and coloring with embarrassment immediately. "You're in my spot."

Naruto stared up at the purple-haired woman blankly as odd, tan colored eyes bored into his. "... your spot?" He asked. "But... it's my spot..." He mumbled to himself, not intending for her to hear. Sure, he'd never been here so early in the morning before, but he still had dibs.

"I don't see your name here, so beat it, brat," the woman growled out, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot in an irritated fashion.

"I don't see your name here either!" He protested, only to twitch as she stepped up to him and carved the name 'Mitarashi Anko' in the dirt with a crude mixture of kanji and hiragana.

"Now my name is here, so go home and let me vent! It's not like you need to be in this particular place to ramble to yourself out loud like a loon, Mr. Out-of-whack!" Anko growled back at him, a scowl befalling pale features.

Growling right back, he made good use of his foot and swiped the name out, glaring at her. "And it's not like you need to be in this particular spot to vent or whatever! Why don't you go to training ground 43? 44 is taken!"

Now, it was Anko's turn to stare at him blankly. "There is no training ground 43."

He stopped and blinked. "...What do you mean there's no training ground 43? There's a 44, and I've been to 42 before..."

"Yeah, but there's no training ground 43. None of the grounds are numbered in order. When they're built or caged in or whatever, some random jackass posts up a random number. Why do you think there are only thirty-one training grounds in Konoha but the numbers go up to seventy?"

"The numbers go up to seventy?" Naruto asked, eyes going wide.

For the next three hours, Mitarashi Anko and Uzumaki Naruto talked in the middle of training ground 44's front clearing, completely forgetting about whatever had them there in the first place, along with the original reason they'd even spoken to each other. By the time Naruto got back into his house, two hours before Hinata was probably going to come knock on his door for breakfast, he was so exhausted from standing for three hours straight and feeling shock at various points during those hours that he flopped down on his bed face first and was asleep in moments.

* * *

When Iruka had given them the assignment of planning out their day, Naruto hadn't been expecting to find his time so filled up or confused. There were so many normal activities he did, without even noticing, that he felt almost overwhelmed when he looked at it. His day started off by going to learn more 'fascinating Anko facts' read: trying to reclaim his 'calm, cool, collection' place and failing miserably by beginning to talk about things he'd never known before, and then he'd go to sleep, wake up in the middle of some weird haze for breakfast with Hinata, then waste an hour 'training' before going to the Academy, either for school or to hang out in the playground on the weekends. During lunch, he ... well... Kiba ate his lunch and he talked, and then more learning.

After the Academy, he followed Shikamaru and Chouji to their cloud-watching hill to play shougi AKA lose horribly to Shikamaru in a game that was damn confusing or they all went with Kiba and Akamaru to play tag in the park, at which point he somehow ran into either Ino, Sakura, or both before going to Ichiraku's for his dinner. When he was full or broke, he went to visit the Sandaime, which led to being sent home as soon as he yawned. He would then force himself to go to sleep at somewhere around 10:30, have some weird dream that didn't necessarily have anything to do with him, and then wake up to go bother Anko.

Looking over the list, Naruto's eyes widened some. "I didn't think I did this many things," he said. "How am I so bored all the time?"

Lifting his head off the desk, Shikamaru scooted closer and peered over his arm, squinting at the chicken-scratch Naruto thought was hiragana and kanji. "How can you read this?" He muttered, tilting his head to the side and beginning to make out the words some. "Troublesome... you don't sleep enough."

From Naruto's other side, Kiba rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, Shikamaru. You just sleep too much."

"No... Naruto only sleeps for six hours a day," Shikamaru said, poking at the paper. "Five hours after 10:30, and then one hour before he has breakfast with Hinata..." He stopped and blinked at that, turning to look at the blonde. "You eat breakfast with Hinata?"

"Eh?" Kiba asked, leaning over the paper. "What the hell? How can you tell? I can't read this!"

"Tilt your head to the left and squint," Chouji supplied helpfully between bites, a bag of BBQ chips in his hand. "Naruto writes with his paper turned to the side."

"But _why_?" Kiba asked, poking Naruto in the shoulder, Akamaru barking as if to second the question.

Naruto shrugged. "How should I know? I just write like that. I can read it just fine."

"Of course you can read it just fine, idiot. It's _your_ paper," Kiba said dryly. "Who the hell is Anko?"

"This crazy lady who--"

"Alright everyone, pay attention!" Iruka yelled as he walked back into the classroom, having been called out a few minutes ago to talk to a jounin. "Get back to your seats right now!" He waited until everyone was back in their proper chairs before beginning to speak again, his voice level back to normal. "For the rest of the week, I'll be working in the missions office, so you'll have a substitute."

Naruto was sure he'd heard Iruka say a name, but with the cheering suddenly going on, it was drowned out. He didn't need to hear it, though, when Mitarashi Anko strode confidently into the room and threw three kunai into the desks of the loudest people, instantly shutting them all up. "Listen up, gaki! I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your substitute teacher for the rest of the week! If you piss me off, I'm gonna hang you from the ceiling and use you as target practice!"

He groaned and buried his head in his hands.


	5. Flashback 5: Control

A/N:Hmmm... I seem to be starting to release chapters only on Tuesday. Oh well, at least the updates are weekly!

I don't own Sasuke. I meant Naruto. Seriously, with the direction the series is taking...

* * *

"Alright, I've had enough of your smartass comments, gaki!" Anko barked out to the classroom of deathly quiet students, her eyes focused solely on Naruto, who was beginning to sweat under the evil intentions he could just _feel_ sliding off of her to wrap around him. "Get over here!"

Before he knew it, he was being tied up with ninja wire and hung from the ceiling in the classroom, a kunai being held dangerously close to his forehead by some unknown jutsu he'd never seen before. _'I can't believe she's doing this!' _He thought, fighting down his shaking, somehow feeling that she was sadistic enough to get him hurt if he so much as wiggled wrong.

Really, Naruto didn't know what the problem was; She'd been lecturing them on proper shinobi dress, but he felt the need to point out that she herself was barely wearing anything. It was a valid point, wasn't it? How could she tell him shinobi should have thick pants to lessen weapon wounds when all she was wearing was a trenchcoat, a fishnet suit, and a miniskirt with some type of double-fishnet for a shirt? _How_ did all those holes lessen the wounds?

One would think, after an entire week of dealing with her every morning and afternoon, getting some form of punishment every day, that Naruto would've learned his lesson by now. The problem was, however, that being around Anko and her attitude made him get an attitude, which led to clashing, which _usually_ led to problems. The alternative to problems were long, meaningless talks that floated from subject to subject depending on it's rating of interest on a scale of Anko-to-Naruto. Of course, this sometimes led to more clashing, which tended to lead to problems the second time around.

Unfortunately for him, he was the underdog.

"Alright, all of you. Just for the sake of spiting the annoying little blonde, you can call go home now!" Anko exclaimed with a grin at Naruto's gaping expression. "Off with you all, you little hellions!" As all the students emptied from the classroom, Hinata straying behind a bit slower than the others, the woman made shooing motions with her hands, a cheery, distinctly _evil_ grin on her face.

"...Anko-sensei...?" Naruto questioned meekly, seeing her advancing on him and feeling fear run down his spine.

"You should be happy the Sandaime doesn't want me destroying anyone's brains from all that blood rushing there," Anko said after a minute, scowling before grabbing the kunai from mid-air and slicing him down in a single motion, snickering when he hit the back of his head on the ground with a loud crack. "Serves you right, you ungrateful little blonde."

"Not my fault you're walking around half-naked all the time," Naruto grumbled as he stood, rubbing the growing bump on the back of his head gingerly.

"Do you want me to tie you up again?"

"That's child abuse!" He exclaimed in retaliation, following her out of the classroom with a glare and a pout. "You really put me in danger!" Naruto wasn't sure how long his rant lasted, and after a while, he didn't even know what he was saying, but his words ended when they reached the ever-empty Training Area 44 once more. _'Huh, I'm off schedule...'_

"I really put you in danger, huh?" Anko asked suddenly, a dark smirk spreading across her features. "I'll show you danger."

Before Naruto could give a high-pitched, girly scream and run off in fear, she'd grabbed him around the waist and walked over to the gate, easily hopping over it despite Naruto's protests. When they were grounded once more, she set him down and and grabbed him by the hand before dragging him behind her into the heart of the forest.

As they proceeded, Anko pointed out various creatures and plants, all of them able to kill him with a simple flicker of instinct or reflex, and gradually, Naruto's struggles came to a complete halt and he found himself completely enraptured as she informed him of all the dangerous things in the Forest of _Death_.

Nudge, nudge. Hint, hint.

"And over there? A huge ass tiger den. One of their paws is probably as big as you are right now when they're full grown. The white tigers are bigger than the others though, and they have larger teeth too. If one of them started chasing you, you'd be coming out of them as shit within an hour," Anko pointed out, jumping into one of the high tree branches, all the while pulling him along as she pointed out the gaping cave which had several _huge_ white tigers lounging in front of it.

"Then...The tigers rule the forest?" Naruto asked in awe as he watched a tail, three times his height, swing gracefully through the air.

"Nope," she glanced at him and seemed to furrow her eyebrows. "It's actually just all the feline-related animals in here. You know, tigers, panthers...Foxes."

At the magic word, his head shot to her immediately. "Foxes? There are foxes here? What kind of foxes? Are they huge too? Do they look like regular foxes? Do they have just one tail? Where are they? How many are there? Can we see them? What--" Naruto stopped, blinking and blushing in embarrassment when she stared at him blankly, seeming somewhat amazed that he could spout out all those questions so quickly. "Eto... gomen nasai..."

_'I wonder... does he know about the Kyuubi?' _Anko thought, her conscious self retreating into some sort of 3rd party observer even as she began answering his questions about foxes slowly, taking him by the hand and leading him to the ground again, starting off to where she remembered seeing foxes. _'Looking at him, I wouldn't believe it... but then, looks can be deceiving. Why else would he be so interested in foxes? I wonder if the Kyuubi talks to him...'_

"--ko-sensei, look!" Naruto exclaimed in a large stage whisper, bringing her out of her daze. Blinking, Anko followed his pointing finger only to stop on three foxes, one of regular size and two roughly up to her waist, which was saying something considering that she was all legs in height.

Naruto was fascinated; He'd never seen a real fox before. Sure, he'd seen the Kyuubi, but the Kyuubi was just a giant fox-like entity so powerful that it was more like a giant chakra-animal than a fox, not to mention it's tails seemed to be constantly on steroids with the way they moved. _'These foxes only have one tail though... oh, wait, the biggest one has two!' _He thought, eyes going wider than before.

Both he and Anko froze when the largest fox looked _dead_ at them and seemed to narrow it's eyes, not that they weren't already narrowed impossibly. "Oh shit," Anko found herself saying as the reddish brown feline stalked over, not speeding up as Anko moved Naruto behind her and began backing away. _'Shit, shit, shit. I can't send him away, he might get hurt. But if I keep him here, we'll both get mangled... shit, shit... what?' _

The fox stopped mere inches away from Anko's two kunai, and suddenly, nothing was feral about it anymore. Anko froze when it nudged it's nose into her side, and then gaped indignantly when she found herself being pushed away so it could sniff Naruto, who seemed more like a kid in a candy store than a child who was possibly about to be devoured.

Suddenly, it was as all the life around them stopped, and she watched as Naruto's posture suddenly relaxed completely. A gasp escaped her when the boy blinked, azure eyes becoming deep crimson in a matter of seconds, whiskers lengthening and darkening as canines grew much larger than previously. What shocked her, however, was the sheer control being emitted from the light sheen of red, demonic chakra covering the boy, nothing like the raw blast of power she'd felt when the Kyuubi first attacked Konoha.

The Kyuubi, in control of Naruto, opened it's mouth and began speaking in calm-sounding growls and yips. Mitarashi Anko was the first person to ever witness the Kyuubi in control of Naruto's body.

"What the hell?"

* * *

When Naruto woke up, staring dazedly at a white ceiling with some odd Konoha symbol on it, made from what appeared to be dango sticks, he was confused. For some reason, he couldn't remember where he was, or where he'd been before, for that matter. He obviously wasn't at home, because the room he was in was littered with dango sticks and bottles of sake, which he wasn't even old enough to drink. And then there was the entire matter of the upside-down purple-haired, scantily clad woman only inches from his face...

"...Wait, what?" Naruto mumbled out, his eyes narrowing so he was squinting up at the woman, who had a scowl on her face. "Anko-sensei?"

"What the hell did you think you were doing back there?" Anko asked before starting off on a rant about foxes, forests, and idiotic blondes, none of which actually registering in Naruto's head for a good three minutes.

Suddenly, and rather late, the memories came flooding back to him. "_Oh_!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, understanding what Anko was raving about. "The fox wanted to talk with the other fox."

"..." Anko stared at him blankly. "You mean to say that the Kyuubi asked to be let out...And you just let him?" She stopped again, and her eyes narrowed. "The Kyuubi talks to you?"

Only just realizing he'd let out one of the major secrets in his life, Naruto squeaked. He began inching away from Anko, only to suddenly find himself three feet off of her couch as she shook him by the shoulders, yelling for answers. "Ow! Yamatte! Anko-sensei! Ow! _Stop_!"

Breathing heavily as she got the momentary panic out of her system, Anko transferred her grip to the scruff of his neck and held the blonde up so they were eye to eye. "Listen up, kid. I haven't talked to Hokage-sama about this yet, but I'm sure you know as well as I do what will happen if the council catches word of the fox contacting you. Sit down and spill right now, or there's gonna be hell to pay!" She growled out.

"Okay! Okay! Put me _down_!"

Giving him a glare for good measure, she lightly tossed him to one end of the couch before sitting on the arm where he'd been before. "Alright then, kid. How long has the Kyuubi been contacting you?"

"For...Forever?" Naruto replied awkwardly. He _thought_ it was forever, at least. He didn't quite remember anything before he was four, being as young children tended to have short attention spans.

"How often do you speak and what do you talk about?"

"Rarely, usually when I'm in big trouble or unconscious. We don't actually talk about much. The Kyuubi goes on and on about foolish humans and how Konoha is so pitiful he wouldn't ever come just to destroy it and more stuff like that," Naruto replied. _'I'm getting a bit too good with keeping specific information from people...'_ "No, he's never taken over my body before. I just let the Kyuubi have control this time because... well... it's like trying to keep a father from his children after years, I wouldn't do that."

Anko fell silent at this. She could relate; If she'd ever gotten the chance to see her parents again, only to be pulled away, there would be big trouble for whoever interfered. Still, it was a bit troubling to know that Naruto had contact with the demonic fox that was so commonly portrayed as evil throughout her entire life, especially when she'd watched as it nearly destroyed Konoha from up-close. How could she be sure it wasn't all some elaborate ploy? Gain some semblance of the boy's trust and then completely overthrow the seal, strike out at Konoha, and take sweet revenge for being sealed in a human for so long?

Then again, it could just be her mind leaning towards pessimism from being under Orochimaru's tutelage. If that was the case, she felt more like she wanted to believe Naruto and say the Kyuubi wasn't going to do anything. But that would be biased; She couldn't decide on one thing or another just because she didn't want to think the way she'd been taught by Orochimaru, even if the vile snake-lover had caused her so much pain.

Unconsciously, Anko reached up to rub the cloth above her seal, and sighed. "Alright, gaki, let's make a deal. You don't let the Kyuubi take over again without good reason and I won't go to those old windbags and have them put you under ANBU watch 24/7. Good?" _'This kid is so damn exasperating!'_

Naruto blinked in surprise, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Yeah!" Sure, he'd been expecting to go see the Sandaime and be glared at by some old council members, but this was pretty cool too. "So..."

"So?"

The two of them were silent for a long moment, and then:

_Rumble_.

"Ramen!"

"Dango, you mean."

"...Ramen?"

"Dango."

"...Che..."

* * *

_"Gaki."_

Naruto winced as he opened his eyes to the rumbling voice of the Kyuubi no Yoko, greatest of all bijuu, his 'houseguest' of ten years. "What is it with me waking up to people talking to me today?" He mumbled under his breath with a slight scowl, not even flinching as a growl rung out through the space where he stood, used to it. "Yes?"

_"This isn't the time for your pitiful human whining, child. Pay attention,"_ the great fox all but snapped, crimson eyes narrowing on the blonde in a dangerous fashion. _"My kinsmen are worried. Things are happening, things that shouldn't be; The serpents and vile ones are conspiring and gathering power." _The large crimson orbs narrowed even further. _"They will come for you, my host. And you... you are weak, just like all the other humans. If you aren't prepared, it will be the end of your puny existence and I'll be sent back to the demonic planes for another millenia, like a badly behaved kit..."_

Naruto blinked, eyes narrowing in the distinctly vulpine manner that was second-nature to him as he frowned. Was the great Kyuubi no Yoko _whining_? "What are you talking about, fox?"

_"Exactly what I said, you insolent brat!"_ The beast snarled out. _"You are weak and you need to grow stronger, lest we both find ourselves in undesirable situations. It's only a matter of time before the danger rises to the front, and if you cannot defend yourself when that moment comes, you'll be facing __**true**__ Hell, and that is something not even the greatest of Youma can face without quivering."_

"What do you expect me to do about it? What do you want me to do? Just go up to Ojii-san and say, 'Hey, Hokage-sama, the giant fox inside my body wants me to turn into some super-powerful human so it doesn't have to go home for another million years!'?" Naruto replied dryly, imitating a cheerful voice as he thought of that conversation with the Hokage.

The Kyuubi glared harder and snapped, sending a harsh flux of raw demonic chakra at the boy, sending him skidding to the ground. _"Don't mock me, mortal. If I recall correctly, it was you that so wished in your phantasms not to die! I'm expecting you to find one of those more powerful mortals and learn as you humans really should!"_

The blonde winced unintentionally at the reminder of that particular, drawn-out, emotionally tiring dream. "Unless you haven't noticed, it's not that easy," he replied, scowling but not daring to raise his voice again. "Ojii-san won't let me go out of the village because I'm not even a genin yet, and I can't just ask him or some random person to start teaching me. You've been here the entire time; You should know how long it took for me to get all the villagers and shinobi to start ignoring me instead of provoking me the majority of the time."

_"And what do you expect me to do, child? I am a Great Youma, not one of those flimsy mortals that call themselves shinobi. I cannot help you learn any of those pitiful 'jutsu' for I do not know any. All I'm doing is steering you in the correct direction for a longer 'life' as you humans call it; How you get there is up to you."_

And then, Naruto was kicked out of his own mind.

"Damn fox." He wiped drool from the corner of his mouth. "Steering me in the right direction? Yeah right...More like ramming me into the 'right' direction," he muttered, pulling his knees to his chest and resting his chin on folded arms. "What am I supposed to do, anyways? Stupid fox..."

"I win, Naruto," Shikamaru said, resting his chin in his hand. "Four moves. Well... that's one more than last week, at least." Ignoring the blonde as he began sputtering in rage and demanding what would be their sixteenth rematch of the day, the brown-eyed boy lay back in the grass next to Chouji, staring at the clouds as they drifted by overhead.

"You're cheating somehow, aren't you?" Naruto accused, frowning. "It's not right! How am I going to learn to play if all you're doing is beating me without explaining?"

"Learn how to predict my thinking pattern and stop falling into traps," he replied with a shrug before yawning. "How troublesome... remind me again why you pulled me from my house at eleven in the morning on a Saturday?"

"Because..." He stopped. Why _did_ he go over to Shikamaru's house and wake him up? It wasn't about Shougi, that much he knew...

"Ne, Naruto, didn't you say something about needing advice?" Chouji asked before eating a handful of vinegar chips. "Er... and something about training?"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, punching a fist into an open palm as he remembered. Lazy as he was, Shikamaru was extremely smart, so Naruto wanted to come to him for help with his 'predicament'. "Oi, Shikamaru, I need your help. I have to get stronger, but I don't know how to, and I can't get any jounin or chuunin to train me."

"And why would you think I knew how to get stronger?"

"Because you're smart!"

"Mendoukusai," Shikamaru muttered in response, pulling some grass off his face as a breeze flew by. "Why come to me? Go to the library or something. It's not like I train all that much."

_'The library...'_ "You mean that place with all the books and scrolls and stuff?"

Chouji stifled a laugh in his hand at the question, while Shikamaru resisted the urge to hit Naruto in the head for acting stupid. "No, I mean the place with the flying pigs. Of course I mean the place with all the books!"

"Oh, okay then. Thanks Shikamaru, Chouji!" Standing, Naruto brushed all the dirt and grass off his pants before waving to the two and running off.


	6. Flashback 6: Ino

A/N: Without further ado, here's the chapter!

* * *

First and foremost, there were books. Millions of them, probably, of all different sizes and shapes and colors. But there were also scrolls. And posters. And banners. They were all colorful, and many of them had pictures, although some of those pictures were confusing because of how they were drawn. The books and scrolls with pictures were separated from the ones with simple text, and then there was a completely different sector that focused entirely on books for the blind, which had pages with bunches of tiny holes poked through them like swiss cheese.

Of course, there weren't just books, no. There was a giant television in the back; It didn't have any color, but it did show videos, although the videos were usually biographies instead of action movies or any other thing that could keep a normal person interested. And, of course, there were chairs and tables around it; They weren't expecting you to read or watch TV standing up. The chairs were comfortable, too, big and like the ones you expect to find in some old rich man's den, sitting in front of a fireplace...

'And the man would have one of those funny hats with the golden tassel hanging off of it, and maybe a pipe in his mouth too...' Naruto grimaced. 'Okay, a bubble pipe. I don't like smoke. It's too...Smokey...I wonder if they make those without smoke...?' He shook his head, coming to the startling realization that his mind was drifting off into the clouds, when he was supposed to be studying the books about training methods he had spread all around him on the table.

Sitting in the center of the library, for what was probably the fifth time in the last ten days, Naruto found himself studying. Studying...It wasn't something he did too often. Sure, he was determined not to be the dead-last of the class, but he wouldn't go out of his way to be the best when he was never going to use half of it. He supposed that the training books were worth studying, though, seeing as if he didn't, the fox would keep nagging at him.

So far, he'd come up with only two things he could do correctly, which would be wearing weights and -guess what?- reading up about more training methods. Naruto still had yet to go find a weapon's shop, seeing as he didn't think he had enough money to buy weights yet, but Shikamaru had surmised to him that if he ate at home more, he'd have enough money by the time Friday rolled around. To help with this endeavor, Chouji volunteered to make the boy a bento every other day, because food was his clan's specialty.

"Naruto-kun, what about this? It's a chakra control exercise, balancing a leaf on your head with chakra, and tree-walking... Otou-sama is teaching the tree walking exercise already, so if you'd like, I could help you with it," came the quiet voice.

And of course, Hinata had volunteered her services once she heard about his current 'quest'. Surprisingly, Naruto found that the girl's knowledge pertaining to certain subjects was incredible, even if it was because her fighting style depended on near-perfect chakra control and flexibility. After his last visit to the library, where Hinata was working on a project that he didn't know they had, she'd been helping him search through which books and scrolls were trash, and which could really be helpful.

"Honto ni?" Naruto questioned, blinking as he leaned over her shoulder to glimpse at the page, which demonstrated the proper steps for both exercises and what the results should be. "Thanks, Hinata-san," he said, completely oblivious to her nervousness at the close proximity.

"N-n-no problem, Naruto-kun," she stuttered lightly as he sat back, a light sigh of relief escaping her. Hinata's eyes lingered on his form for a few seconds as he continued the research before she realized what she was doing and looked down. It wasn't that she didn't _like_ Naruto, not at all, but she didn't think that she liked him like that. At least not yet. She only admired him, and that much was clear...At least to her, it was.

"Argh!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, making Hinata jump as she turned sharply to look at him. Allowing his head to drop loudly onto the book, he groaned. "I can't stand it anymore! So many words! So much _memorizing_!"

"Quiet!" The librarian snapped at him from behind the counter, where she could be seen playing a game of cards with herself. Even if the library was practically empty, as always, there were still rules to uphold.

"Gomen, gomen," Naruto replied quietly, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner. Sitting up straight, he sighed loudly before staring down at the books, his stare becoming a glare as he mentally imagined them disappearing.

"Ano...Why don't we start practicing the chakra control exercises, Naruto-kun? We could always come back tomorrow, and it would be nice to have some fresh air, ne?" Hinata suggested, sensing that another explosion of noise would have them kicked out.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed in a loud stage whisper, wasting no time in jumping up and beginning to close and replace the books.

An hour later, he wished he was back in the library. Seeing as both of them knew the leaf exercise from Iruka-sensei, they'd decided to try walking up and down trees. Hinata, while not a master yet, was still making it up the tree much faster and much farther than he was. No matter how much he thought back to the book's instructions, or the suggestions from Hinata, he was _not_ getting it.

Yelping as he found himself lying on his back yet again, Naruto couldn't help but scowl at the tree, feeling that it was somehow being difficult on purpose. "Damn tree..."

Giggling, Hinata walked slowly down her tree to Naruto, helping him stand. "Ano... Naruto-kun... maybe, um, maybe I could activate the Byakugan and tell you how to change your chakra flow when you try...?" She suggested quietly. "Ano, only if you want to though."

Naruto looked at her thoughtfully. 'Creepy eyes and good control or slightly less creepy eyes and bad chakra flow?' After a few seconds of debate, he nodded and grinned widely at her. "Okay, Hinata-san, let's try it."

Walking over to the tree again, he made sure to glare hard at it before slowly starting his way up. Three steps forward, he froze at Hinata's call. "Naruto-kun, try not to put so much chakra in it. Instead of... of increasing the flow as you go up, you should, ano, just keep it steady. Try... ano... every few seconds, let loose the same amount of chakra as now, okay?"

He nodded and began going up the tree again. To his everlasting surprise, he made it all the way to the first branch before he forgot to add a burst of chakra and ended up falling off, cracking his head hard against the roots of the tree. "Ow..."

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" Hinata ask, trying her hardest not to laugh at him as he righted himself. "You did very well."

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing the tender spot at the very top of his head. "Thanks, Hinata-san, I think I've got it. Now I just have to practice so I can do it without paying attention...Eh...Maybe tomorrow."

"Hai, that seems like a good idea. Ano... it's pretty late now. Otou-sama wants me home before the sun sets for training," she said quietly, looking up at the sky, which was slowly turning orange. "I've got to go now. I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun!" With a wave, she turned and lightly began jogging home.

After Hinata left the clearing, Naruto took a deep breath to help him ignore the throbbing of his head and sat down, not sure if he could walk home. _'I'm not really hungry right now, I just wanna sleep...'_ And that's just what he did.

* * *

_Blood. Everywhere. It coated the walls, the floors; Everything. Pools, splotches, trails...Fingerprints. Footprints. Everywhere he turned, all he saw was that deep crimson. It was all he touched, the coppery scent was all he smelt, he could taste the blood on the air, listening as it fell to the ground from unbelievable heights and places, dripping, dripping, dripping..._

_And where was it coming from?_

_**Them**__. Lined up in a nice, neat row, all in size order, all of them covered in red even as it came sluggishly from their bodies in thick streams, caused by various slices and lacerations, gouges, scratches, holes poked randomly...All of them __happily__ staining the once pristine white floors, if the nauseatingly wide smiles on their faces were anything to go by._

_He turned._

_And there, another source of blood. But wait, it wasn't bleeding...No, it was his reflection. The blood was in his hair, on his expressionless face, coating his hands and arms so thickly that it was like another skin...But he wasn't hurt anywhere._

_So he caused it all. He turned back._

_They were staring at him, now. Ino. Sakura. Sasuke. Choji. Shikamaru. Iruka. Hinata. Sarutobi. Kiba. Shino. And they were all **grinning**__, like madmen, like they weren't dead..._

_They were dead._

_Blue eyes widened, and he was suddenly on his knees, staring at his hands in horror even as they all continued grinning at him. Did he kill them? He did, didn't he? Why? How? How could he do something so...So...Was there even a word for this?_

_When did he become a killer?_

Trapped in his own world of nightmares, still sitting in the training grounds, Naruto didn't see or hear Ino when she noticed him. Of it's own volition, his body sat up at her calls, but there was nothing else; He was stuck.

"Naruto!" Ino yelled into his ear, pulling back worriedly when he didn't so much as flinch. She'd tried shaking him, slapping him even, but there was no response. "Naruto, are you there?" Obviously not. His eyes were locked on the air in front of him, open and glazed over, somehow looking nothing like the mischievous blue she was used to seeing during the day.

Ino recognized it; He was in shock, for some reason. Being from a family that specialized in messing with people's heads, she knew all the symptoms, and had even seen her father go into it when he was called to the hospital to help someone else out of their own mind. Traversing in the mind of somebody shocked was a dangerous thing to do, but her family were the specialists of Konoha; She'd even done it once herself.

'Should I...?' She wondered, watching as tears began slipping down his neutral face, the sight making her insides squirm. 'But, what if I...? No! If I don't help him now, he might be stuck like this forever!' Nervously, she sat to the side of him, resting all her weight on his side until they both leaned back against the tree where she'd found him. Turning slightly, she held focused on him, and then...

"Shintenshin no jutsu!"

'This is horrible,' Ino thought, finding herself standing on the line that divided Naruto's mind into two sections; A giant, dungeon-like place, and the sight she was more used to, a hall that was lined with doors of all different types. She was used to seeing inverted colors, maybe hearing sounds, if the person was creative enough. What she saw however was a pitch-black hall, red lines outlining door handles and bars, with all the doors in such skewered shapes it was a wonder that any of them could remain intact.

And then, there was the whole issue of the silver glass shards all over the floor. She'd read about it, once, from some of the older teachings in her family scrolls. The shards came from a rarely-found glass door, one that only the deepest thinkers -the most insane ones- ever had. Not insane as in world domination...Insane as in basket case, multiple personality, homicidal, crack-fiend, I-Would-Drink-Ammonia-And-Bleach-If-I-Was-Too-Thirsty insane.

Rarer, even, was a Yamanaka that could find where the door was supposed to be, because once it shattered, the frame could be anywhere. The mind was a vast thing, something that couldn't be mapped because it changed so constantly.

'But I can still put the door together again.' Yes, that was something she could do. All she needed was to trace the outlines and match them, like a puzzle, and try her best not to break them. Taking a deep breath, she lightly stepped through the mess to the center and crouched, picking up a piece. Instantly, she was assaulted by images: It was Naruto...And an older Sasuke? Fighting? She caught a glimpse of black markings spreading across her crush's skin before the scene changed to a giant mess of blood -and was that herself grinning?- before she was back in the hall again.

'What the hell?' A tug on her own mind told her she didn't have as much chakra as she'd like for the exercise, and she decided with a shiver to think on it later. For now, she'd bare with the clips and just get the door together...

* * *

_The scenery was changing. Looking at it, Naruto didn't know whether he should feel grateful or not, seeing as he was now sitting in a black abyss. He could hear dripping from somewhere -behind? In front of? Next to?- him, but didn't dare turn and look after what he'd witnessed before; The memory of all that blood made him want to puke._

_"Hello, Naruto-kun."_

_That was a familiar voice. But it wasn't one he liked. No, not at all. "Why are you here, Sasuke?"_

_"Hello, Naruto-kun." Another voice._

_"Orochimaru?"_

_"Hello, Naruto-kun."_

_"Itachi?"_

_"Hello, gaki."_

_"Kisame?"_

_"You can't defeat me, dobe."_

_"Shut up, Sasuke!"_

_"So, this is the weak little Kyuubi container..."_

_"Leave me alone, you snake bastard!"_

_"...I'm here to take you, Naruto-kun."_

_"Get away from me, Itachi!" Was it just him, or was he beginning to sound...Frantic?_

_"Let's just cut off his legs so the scaredy-cat can't run."_

_"Leave me alone, fish-face!"_

_"The gaki is just too--"_

_"--scared, crybaby? Don't--"_

_"--bother, Orochimaru-sama. I'll take care of little Naruto--"_

_"--kun, you're too weak to handle this--"_

_"--is a fight you can't win, just give--"_

_"--up, dobe, we all know I'm more--"_

_"--powerful than you!"_

_"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Over and over, he shouted, but with each demand -plead-, his voice grew weaker and the words grew louder, more hurtful. Was he really as worthless as they led him to believe?_

_"You're too weak to--"_

_This time, the voice broke off into silence. Calming down as everything faded away so it was just in, Naruto found himself crying again. "Please just make it stop..." He whimpered out._

_His prayer was answered._

* * *

Being back in her own body was a shock to Ino, especially opening her eyes to the colors of the world, even if the moon _was_ high in the sky and shrouding everything in shadows. After going through Naruto's mind, viewing the entire ordeal of his dream and fight with Sasuke through the completed door, she didn't know what to do or even think.

Luckily, she didn't have to.

When he opened his eyes to see the sky and Ino's own set of blue orbs, Naruto felt like crying in joy. Actually, he _did_ cry in joy. Not caring about how this would be looked at, he rolled over to put his face in Ino's lap and let out all his tears, feeling eternally grateful when a hand began rubbing his back and another stroked his hair. He was sure she didn't know how _comforting_ it was to see her alive, well, not _bleeding _and _grinning_.

He never wanted to experience that again.

Frowning as her thoughts began ordering themselves, Ino comforted Naruto as best she could, having a new outlook on him. If he could come out of a nightmare like that just crying instead of panicking, then he had to be strong. 'We're gonna have a long talk when this is done...'


End file.
